A Glean movie guide
Pure Dread: Horror Without Jump Scares
No cheap thrills. Just terror.
Masterpieces of atmosphere and psychological tension that haunt you long after they end.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
The Witch
A masterclass in 17th-century isolation and escalating religious paranoia.
In 1630, a farmer relocates his family to a remote plot of land on the edge of a forest where strange, unsettling things happen. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, each family member's faith, loyalty and love are tested in shocking ways.
- 02
Cure
A hypnotic Japanese masterpiece where the horror lies in the mundane and the inescapable.
A detective starts spiraling out of control when a wave of gruesome murders with seemingly similar bizarre circumstances is sweeping Tokyo.
- 03
The Shining
Stanley Kubrick’s legendary descent into madness uses oppressive space and sound to build terror.
Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within.
- 04
Pulse
An unsettling exploration of ghosts that move with a terrifying, slow-motion grace.
In the immense city of Tokyo, the darkness of the afterlife lures some of its inhabitants who are desperately trying to escape the sadness and isolation of the modern world.
- 05
Midsommar
A sun-drenched nightmare that proves horror doesn't need the dark to be deeply disturbing.
Several friends travel to Sweden to study as anthropologists a summer festival that is held every ninety years in the remote hometown of one of them. What begins as a dream vacation in a place where the sun never sets, gradually turns into a dark nightmare as the mysterious inhabitants invite them to participate in their disturbing festive activities.
- 06
The Haunting
A definitive ghost story that relies entirely on sound and architecture to chill the blood.
Dr. John Markway recruits three strangers for a sleep-disorder study at the eerie and isolated Hill House. It soon becomes clear his real interest lies in the mansion itself and its sinister history, as they are forced to confront the nature of its horror…
- 07
The Wailing
An epic South Korean slow-burn that weaves ritual and suspicion into a fever pitch of dread.
A stranger arrives in a little village and soon after a mysterious sickness starts spreading. A policeman is drawn into the incident and is forced to solve the mystery in order to save his daughter.
- 08
Possum
A bleak and unrelenting look at trauma, featuring one of the most unsettling puppets in cinema history.
A disgraced children's puppeteer returns to his childhood home and is forced to confront his wicked stepfather and the secrets that have tortured him his entire life.
- 09
Rosemary's Baby
The gold standard for domestic paranoia, where the true horror is the people living next door.
A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.
- 10
The Babadook
A harrowing manifestation of grief that uses shadows and sound design to create sustained unease.
A grieving single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book manifests in their home.
- 11
Speak No Evil
A modern exercise in social discomfort that escalates into a devastatingly tense finale.
A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on a holiday. What was supposed to be an idyllic weekend slowly starts unraveling as the Danes try to stay polite in the face of unpleasantness.
- 12
The Innocents
A gothic classic that uses deep focus and haunting atmosphere to suggest ghosts in every corner.
A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.